Doorstep milk deliveries

I used to have doorstop deliveries before we moved house a couple of years back. Simialr to you it was a fmily company and you could always rely on them. The milk was fresh and local too. Since we moved there are a couple of my neighbours who have deliveries but they deliver quite late (around 9-9.30 am) which means the milk would be on the doorstep all day as I would have already left for work. So no, I buy a large carton (4 pints) twice a week at the supermarket and don't feel in the slightest bit guilty.

I used to, it was always the first thing we sorted whenever we moved. Find a milkman (who came daily and before 9am in those days) then organise the daily newspaper delivery. But I haven't done either for at least 20 years when we moved away from London. Now I buy from the supermarket ... I'm sorry that the milkmen are in decline but locally they can't provide a reliable and affordable service. Ho hum...

We, too, stopped having a milk delivery when the family firm sold the round to a large dairy company. What had been a good reliable service became very poor, often very late (after I'd left to go to work) deliveries, bolshie delivery men, and just a poor way of doing business in general. We, too, buy a 4 pinter from the supermarket as and when required. I don't feel guilty either.

Here in Malta we have never had milk delivered to the door. However, the bread man calls twice a day, the doughnut seller every afternoon (!), and the vegetable lady once a week.

We still have doorstep deliveries, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Very reliable, they come in the very early morning but we never hear them. Local family run farm. If anything goes wrong (occasionally milk is stolen from the doorstep) they come straight out with a replacement.

Long may they prosper.

A milkman came to ask if I wanted doorstep delivery. I felt bad about turning him down, but I can go weeks without using milk and often have to dispose of a carton of it that has gone sour.

Couldn't resist it !

Apologies for the advert at the beginning.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1xvyTdBZI

Aka ditto, exactly! I'm particularly impressed when they replace stolen milk. In fact I no longer have the heart to tell them when it happens as I don't think they can be held responsible for that.

I live in a smallish town near the Potteries. We have had two doorstep milkman in the 26yrs I have lived here.
Both have been incredibly reliable, apart from the occasional major vehicle failure.
They were/are both really nice people.

When the older man retired on health grounds he sold the business to a young man with (then) a new baby.

Darren buys from a local dairy supplier but owns his own delivery round. He has a cold store at a farm in our small town. When in the very bad winters and the shelves in the local supermarkets were bare, Darren still delivered the milk. He generally gets to us at about 7 to 7:30am.

Darren has said he enjoys being out in the early morning, he likes the birds, the stars and skies, and the relative quiet.

There is something cheering about knowing a person who really enjoys their job, whatever it is. He seems to make a "good enough" living out of it and is very happy with that.

Yes we do have doorstep deliveries but I do not use it.

I stopped years ago as we had a 7 day a week shift pattern and sunday was not a delivery day and we would run out. Also I hated getting home to warm milk or the top pecked open.

We buy milk in the plastic containers and they freeze brilliantly, never run out now.

I cancelled my milk delivery at Christmas. I had been wondering why the milk kept going off in the fridge, but one night when I stayed up after midnight, the dog started barking as the security light went on and I opened the door (hoping to catch a fox or other night visitor) and found my milk on the step. It was being left until I picked it up at breakfast time, so no wonder it wasn't staying fresh. That explained why the box of eggs kept getting tampered with, too. There was always one egg broken and the yolk spilled everywhere. I had been blaming birds, but it could have been any nocturnal animal. My milkman didn't make any offer to deliver at a reasonable time, so I sacked him.

If the milkman can't accommodate what we need to keep milk fresh and prices reasonable, why feel guilty Soutra? It's a shame as it's such a convenience, but customers do need a good service.

I carried on having milk delivered for years even though it cost a lot more than milk from the supermarket. But I lost the loyalty when I no longer knew who i milkan was and he wasn't always reliable timewise with his deliveries. When the milkman used to come round on a Friday night to collect the money, I used to enjoy having a chat; once it became impersonal I no longer wanted to be out of pocket by supporting it. Mind you, if someone started delivering items with a horse and cart again I'd pay the earth for it!

We stopped it when before a bank holiday we would often be left with the milk for the next four days. Our garage and fridge were full of bottles so now we just buy a four pinter. I feel a bit sad that the milkman is becoming a thing of the past but needs change. I can remember the sound of the horse-drawn cart when I visited my Grandmother in Scotland in the 1950s. The electric van was considered very futuristic!

We still have doorsteps deliveries , Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So far always reliable . Milk is delivered early morning and we rarely hear him.

Same here ginny. Our milkman also delivers on Saturday. Very reliable local family run farm and comes early in the morning, so I am more than happy to support them.

We have had the same (father & sons) milkmen since we moved her nearly forty years ago. They deliver at 7.00am and I can't recall them ever having let us down.

I know how you feel, Soutra, because I felt the same when i cancelled my milkman.
It was simply the cost, of course.
When my circumstances changed and money became an issue, I just had to harden my heart and do the dreadful deed. Great swathes of guilt hit me every time I thought about it, and when I heard his van approaching I used to run and hide.
The guilt gradually wore off. Life is tough and we all have to do tough
things at times, so go ahead and do what is best for you. Good luck.

I kept my delivery going for years, even after the 'local' milk man sold out to the big national firm, because I felt I was helping to keep deliveries going for people who really needed it. But like others on here, the milk kept going sour, and we hardly used it. Then they cancelled my delivery without even warning me! So now I buy micro-purified milk which lasts all week and is no more expensive than I was paying before.

i stopped my milkman years ago as it was getting too expensive also he used to get me out of bed at 7 am saturday mornings to pay him!! no idea if theres a milkman who calls in my area anymore...

I don't very often buy milk but have a similar guilt thing over my newspaper. I buy it from the local shop on Saturdays whereas I could get it free from Waitrose. It's £2.50, which is a lot and I wonder how much of that is profit for the shop?

apricot how do you get the paper free from Waitrose? [gets excited, .... can we all do this?]
No milkman here, and have never seen one in the general area, but even if there was I would buy from either the supermarket, or as we do a lot, from the village shop.I remember unreliable milkmen, even once a dishonest one, and so much warm undrinkable milk, often dirty with bird pecked top.Then twice when we cancelled milk [for holidays] milk arrived for a few days afterwards on the step, piling up, an invitation for burglars.

You need to have a 'My Waitrose' card and of course you have to make a purchase. I don't know how much you have to spend, but obviously more than the price of the newspaper. You have a choice of the Telegraph, the Guardian or the Mail - sadly not the Independent, but I don't begrudge the price of the I, even though it has gone up 50% to 30p.

roses you need to have a Waitrose card (easily obtained, just ask for the form and they'll give you a temporary card till the plastic one arrives in the post); and you need to spend £5 or more (including the cost of the chosen newspaper) and then at the till the cost of the newspaper comes off the total. At my local Waitrose - which has a cafe - you also get a free or coffee on your card!

I have it down to quite a fine art as to spend £5 on milk, break and a sandwich for lunch. Of course sometimes I spend much more than the required fiver...

What's break?! That should be bread of course.